26th February:
Brother Neubert kept school. The children were very lively and the school itself sweet and blessed. In the evening I held the usual Quarter Hour Devotion for the Communicant Brethren and Sisters and spoke on the regular Congregational Text. After the Quarter Hour I took leave of the Brethren and Sisters. Each of them expressed their tender love and thanked me so heartily for everything that I had done that I was quite ashamed.
The old 94 year old Father wept and said if only I could stay for another few months it would not be to long for him for he had enjoyed my company and that even though he couldn’t understand me [38] his heart still had a constant blessed feeling, especially in the services.
Because the above mentioned Lovefeast was brought up again, we had them told that they had just had one a couple of weeks ago and would have another when unexpected visitors came soon, so that they should be content until then and this came to pass.
27th February:
In the morning and afternoon Brother Neubert kept school again with me present. He does it very nicely. At the close of the afternoon school I took heartfelt leave of the children. I was a little apprehensive before hand. I had hardly begun to speak to them and to ask them among other things to make glad the heart of the Little Lamb [39] and to commend themselves to His pierced Heart that they were weeping and sobbing so loudly and acted so very melancholy that I often had to stop and collect myself and steel myself because it was almost impossible for me to restrain myself from weeping. We could hardly look at it. Brother Neubert held his handkerchief in front of his face for his heart was breaking as they quite exhausted their weeping over the school. I can’t express how I felt. So we let them go peacefully from us. One saw their cheeks wet with tears. They gave me tender greetings to the children in Bethlehem.
In the evening we still had visits from many Brethren and Sisters. They brought me many greetings from their dear children and said that they had cried all the way home and said that they quite felt that the Savior had been among them and that it had been no different for them than if the Savior had been between us Brethren and had moved back and forth among them and especially during the closing little verse quite as if His Wounds had twinkled and sparkled:
“Thy mighty wings be pleased to spread, Lord Jesus, now above my head.” [40]
At first they had tried to hide their tears but when their parents asked them what they had heard in school, the tears came with power out of their eyes. They didn’t know how to express how they felt. They could not dissuade me that they should come to me again tomorrow. The parents wept along with them.
39. Jesus the Lamb of God; Little Lamb, “Laemmlein,” is a diminutive common in the "Sifting Time"
40. “Breit’ aus die Fluegel beide, O Jesus meine Freude, und nimm’ dein Kuecklein ein” a verse from Paul Gerhard’s familiar evening hymn “Nun ruhen aller Waelder”
Brother Bader's Diary
of his Journey and Visit to the Schools in the Country from
16th November 1752 to
28th February 1753
Translated by Pastor Roy Ledbetter
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